Goodbye My Alpha (BxB)

Chapter 4: Time Waits for No One

Juno hated going to school. It was one of those things he used to enjoy and look forward to before he got the title of "Alpha successor".  More than half of the kids who go to his sixth form were werewolves from his pack, while the rest were humans. That meant that even though he was away from the watchful eyes of the Elders, he could not afford to let loose or be himself. The boy was well aware that some of his pack members served as the eyes and ears of the Elders. 

His every move was reported back to them and he had to endure their scrutiny at every little slip up. Juno often felt like a bird trapped in a glass cage. It was futile for him to think for himself. Let alone endeavour to form friendships with his pack mates. Afterall, how could he be sure of their intentions? Especially when everyone seemed to want something from him. Juno was not someone to entertain such complex relationships. And as such, he always kept a fair distance from almost everyone. 

The only people he hung out with were his best friend, soon to be Beta, Kaleo, as well as their other childhood friend Kii whom he was as close to as a real sibling. The trio had known each other since birth. Their relationship had remained mostly unchanged by the news of Juno's eventual succession of the Alpha role. And for that the boy was relieved and delighted. He wasn't sure if he could handle the emotional  toll of his two best friends suddenly treating him differently.

Juno's Perspective

Being the feared person I am, attending sixth form is nothing short of unpleasant. The looks of fear I get from my fellow students, especially my pack members make me very uncomfortable. They look like they have seen a predator. Something I find rather unsettling since I can't recall what I had done to incite such a reaction from them. I admit that I do punish pack members who have done something to deserve punishment, but my punishments are always fair and never severe enough for them to fear me as such. 

The Elders tell me that this is how it should be. I should be feared because fear results in obedience and obedience leads to respect. But I don't think that is necessarily correct but then again perhaps I am still too young and inexperienced to fully understand this concept. Anyway, now it seems that whatever fear my packmates have for me has rubbed off on the human students as they too seem to avoid me. But frankly I don't care about the humans' opinions of me. 

A few months ago I beat up a group of wolves whom I had found bullying a couple of humans. I was pissed, really pissed. It is a well known fact within the pack that we are to avoid overly interacting with humans unless they are found to be a possible mate. And even then we must inform the Elders before making any move. We are also not to engage in physical fights with them unless it's for self defence due to the differences in our physical strengths. And so, I kicked those bastards asses. And thoroughly at that. I also made them do night patrol duty for a month afterwards. 

But somehow that event ended up becoming a twisted rumour that spread like wildfire amongst the humans. The rumour was about how I viciously 'bullied' and beat the shit out of some 'poor' and 'defenceless' students for no apparent reason. What the humans didn't know was that, firstly, those bastards did not deserve their sympathy and secondly they had already completely healed by the end of the day. The three days they took off school was just a guise to avoid any unwanted suspicions of them suddenly coming to school completely healed a day after they had had their asses severely handed to them. 

My internal musings were interrupted by Miss Clarke when she says she will be assigning us into groups for our next project. She's a human, so I'm sure she couldn't smell the fear radiating from the wolves at the possibility of being assigned to the same group as me. I sigh internally and continue to digest the thoughts running through my head.

This morning, my beta Kaleo spoke to me through the mind link excitedly telling me that there was a new human boy in school. At first I didn't really care, since I never concerned myself with what the humans were doing unless they are suspicious.

Kaleo had told me that this new boy was 'super cute' and he smelled 'peculiarly' good. Not paying much attention to him since he finds just about anything cute, heck, he even thinks spiders are cute. So, I just ignored his excited rumbling. However, half way through Kii joined the mind link, telling me that there was a new boy named Tully and he was 'super cute but also 'smelled unusual'. Instantly, I knew they were talking about the same boy and now I had to find out more about this boy.  Because for all I know he could pose a possible threat to our pack if he was associated with hunters or if he was a wolf masking his scent in order to spy on our pack on an enemy's pack behalf. And just like Kaleo, Kii also told me that she had invited the boy to eat lunch with us. 

* * * *

The morning went by slowly, and Juno's mind was filled with the thoughts of this new mysterious boy. Was he a threat to his pack? If not, why did Kaleo and Kii both say he smelled off? Juno was already physically exhausted since he had been waking up around 4am for the last couple of weeks. And now he felt a different kind of exhaustion, a tiredness he often experienced when he began to overthink things.

The closer it was getting to his inauguration the more duties the boy was taking over from his uncle. He hoped that once the title was bestowed upon him, and Kaleo became his trusty Beta, the two could then select a few qualified pack members to help them with some of the admin related tasks. But that's only if the elders agreed to it though. It was because he didn't think that he and Kaleo alone could successfully handle all the duties by themselves, at least not just yet. They still needed time to adjust into their roles so that they could avoid making any unnecessary mistakes. As his mind raced, the boy's thoughts became clouded leading him down a familiar path of negativity and self-doubt. He began to think that maybe he was just making excuses because deep down he feared that he was just not cut out to lead the pack. He had never been praised nor acknowledged for his hard work thus far. He was simply a substitute for his sister and a son who had to live out his mother's dream. 

[We are more than qualified to lead our pack, Juno. We have worked so hard and gone beyond what was expected of us to ensure that we can protect each and every member of our pack family. So have a little faith in us]. A voice echoed in  Juno's mind breaking him from his escalating internal thoughts.

Eos was Juno's wolf. He was probably the only person who knew the boy's innermost feelings which was a given since they were two in one. And due to this fact, Juno found it difficult to hide things from Eos nor did he ever see the need to do so either, as the boy thought he would really go insane if there wasn't at least one person who knew the real him. 

"I know Eos. Those were just idle thoughts, don't take them too seriously. We have prepared for this role so we will be fine". Juno replied to his wolf with confidence. But Juno knew all too well that the worst lies were those you told to yourself. He was not okay, and hadn't been for a while. And that was something no one knew not even Eos as to Juno, this was his most guarded secret, his shame and his weakness.